Around midnight on Tuesday 16th November the
majority of the boats based at Downies were wiped out, in total eight
boats were lost overnight and would never sail again. This was quite a
sizeable disaster and what is unusual about it was that none of the
crews were injured or lost; in fact most of them would have been fast
asleep in their beds unaware that anything was amiss.

So, what were the circumstances behind this extraordinary
event?

A landslide had occurred in Downies Haven which resulted
in five boats being buried in up to ten foot of rocky debris, and a
further three boats being partially covered, but with enough damage to
prevent them being put to sea again.

This incident was discovered the following morning when
the fishermen went down to the shore and were confronted with the view
of the haven in disarray as a result of an overhanging cliff collapsing
during the night. Most of the berthed boats were buried under mounds of
earth and masses of fallen rocks.

Several of the local residents declared that they had
heard an unusual, low, rumbling sound shortly after midnight however
their assumption was that it was likely to have been thunder so no one
ventured outside to make an investigation. Unfortunately the sound they
had heard was a large part of the cliff falling away into the small
harbour which was located approximately two hundred yards away from the
front row of village houses.

In some ways the fishermen were quite fortunate because a
few of them were still engaged in hauling up their boats as late as
eleven o’ clock the previous evening, little more than an hour before
the landslide had occurred. Had they been working any later or had the
landslide occurred an hour earlier then they could have lost their lives
– there is little in the way of an escape route in this small haven and
they would have been engulfed in seconds.

The Aberdeen Journal reported the likely cause of the
landslide as follows, “The recent heavy rains have doubtless had the
effect of loosening the earth holding the rocks together, and which
overhung a natural cavern, flooded at high tide, with no support
whatever from below”.

I’m very familiar with this section of rocks, as this is
one of the places where I set my creels during the summer months, and my
own conjecture is that part of the rocks known as the “Knaps of Downies”
had slipped away and covered much of the north side of
Downies Haven as
there are plenty of large, loose boulders in that vicinity to suggest
that’s where the landslide occurred. What is more difficult to imagine,
given what we are left to look at today, is the concept of an
overhanging cavern which was flooded at high tide – maybe there used to
be a rock formation in this small haven that was similar to the “Bullers
of Buchan”, near Peterhead.

Anyway, back to the story. The eight boats which were
lost in these extraordinary circumstances were as follows; “Blossom”
owned by George Wood, “Bon-Accord” owned by George Wood, “Cellert” owned
by William Main, “North of Scotland” owned by George Knowles, “Brothers”
owned by James Wood, “Six Brothers” owned by Andrew Main, “Isabella”
owned by Moses Wood and “Brothers” owned by Robert Main. Two other boats
managed to escape any damage at all and they were “Friends” owned by
George Leiper and “Jean” owned by Robert Main. A number of herring boats
also escaped any damage, having been already hauled up the grassy banks
at the south side of the Haven at the end of the herring fishing
season.

The livelihood of all of the Downies fishermen was
affected by this, not only those that had lost boats which needed to be
replaced, but also those fishers whose boats had escaped were unable to
put to sea for a long period of time because of the blockage of rocks
and debris which prevented exit or entrance to and from the shore.
Subscriptions to aid the fishermen were solicited and a fund was set up
although it may have been a matter of weeks, and possibly months, before
there was enough money in the kitty for the fishers to “start over”.